Many thanks to our amazing volunteer Javier Regidor who took our design for Agroforestry in a vineyard to the BiorNE permaculture conference. Read the comments and feedback we received!
(These comments come from the consultation at the BioNE conference on 5th Sept 2021, and a consultation with the owner of the land on 18th August 2021)
Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.
In this post we share the initial designs for converting a vineyard in the Vall Rovira into Regenerative Agroforestry and share our plan for consultation sessions. We aim to complete the design at the end of September 2021.
When I go for a walk by the river then sit down doing nothing, I end up thinking about Rovira Regenerativa. This is the project that I want to be working on! In this document you can see the ideas for implementing the plan we made in June, and the proposed dates for the consultation meetings, and other project actions during 2021. (The document is in Spanish)
Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.
In 2018 we invited two young people, as part of the European EVS programme to come and do volunteering in Spain. See their experiences and videos here!
2018 “Living and teaching Permaculture”
4th October 2018
Review from Jessica (her first ever blog post – when she was here as an EVS volunteer in 2018!)
I’m back in Boodaville. It’s great to be back and follow the rhythm of nature to guide our days. I miss that in our everyday society. It’s very interesting to see how my fellow Boodavillians have changed in the 2 months I’ve been away. They are so free. So confident. In touch with themselves and taking life day by day. It makes me realise how I have changed the last 2 months too. I adapted to life in our modern society again. Guided by the clock and appointments and my mobile phone. It is amazing how I bounced back into society life. Now I need time to bounce back in nature’s rhythm. The rhythm I prefer.
I’ve been doing various projects since I’m back. Redoing the insulation on the veggie fridge, making a functioning hay box (we need to find a new name for it… Aggelos suggested sheep box as it is insulated with wool now, not with hay). We lit the rocket stove we made this summer for the first time. It didn’t go very well, there was smoke coming out everywhere. Jordi, who is in charge of this project, calmly started to repair and showed me how I can make the best fire. He announced me the fire master. I’m also trying to bring a leather chair back to life by using the tools we’ve got. I love being creative. I keep surprising myself with the skills I never thought I had. I’m even learning Spanish. It’s hard to believe that I arrived only last week. So many things I have learned already.
Often we swim in the river and it’s not as pleasant as it used to be this summer. These days its more… refreshing I’ve got to say. And therefore getting in the water is turning into a challenge. I keep telling myself that it will make me strong and resilient. That works well so far. I wonder how long it will last.
23rd December 2018
This beautiful reflection is written by Aggelos one of two long-term volunteers this season:
Hello hello, probably for the last time, at least for this year. My EVS project has almost come to an end and it is in these moments when you think you would look back, remembering and reflecting upon experiences. But you don’t do it the usual way, just looking at photos, or wishing you relive some special moments because those moments are gone, they are in the past. That doesn’t mean you forgot about them but that they are a part of you now. You will never forget because you are who you are.
I cannot relate any more to the person I was when I first arrived in Boodaville. Frightened and scared that I had left everything behind, my friends, my family and the security of no change. The very first moments of complete sadness and without any sense of purpose. Looking around I could only see the emptiness and meaningless in everything. It was only when I talked to the people that were with me there about how I felt that I started to grow, to grow inside. No more wondering if I chose the right place, if I made the best decision.
“this was the first step to natural farming and reconnection with the true nature of all things. Because when you realise that the soil in your hand is not just a combination of water, minerals, organic matter and microorganisms but life itself, the essence of meaning, it is then you become whole not as a human but as part of everything.”
Living in Boodaville, in a way that most people would call primitive, can be frustrating and limiting at first. It is the mindset of the modern human, the prison in which he was born in not able to see the bars that would bring about his lust for escape. Letting go is the key for accepting the unfamiliar, the different.
After I got used to the facilities I learned to love them. Pooing and peeing in the ground to return the nutrients back to the earth, washing dishes with minimal water and soap, being aware that everything will end up in the soil, the element keeping as humans and a lot of other creatures alive. Even washing ourselves was done with the minimal impact on the surrounding environment usually in the close by river. As for our house, it was made out of stone walls and a green roof. The addition of a rocket stove, a very weird looking construction in which the wood burns more efficiently producing more heat which is distributed along a bench, made all the difference during the cold months of October and November. It was the result of team work from scouts, volunteers and the teacher.
In addition to the main house there was an old stone wall house next to it. My first very exciting task was to help rebuild the roof of that house with a bunch of other people also excited to work with natural materials. Bio-construction became something really important and fun for me.
Self-sufficiency is the desirable outcome of permaculture but it takes time to reach that point of a well established ecosystem that supports itself. The task was even harder considering the compacted lifeless bleached and withered soil in Boodaville. Years of ploughing destroyed the top soil and deprived the earth of organic matter and microorganisms. During my time in Boodaville one of my site tasks was to attend the future food forest, to water the trees growing there. But a lot of them died. We suspected that the soil’s compaction was to blame and when the time came just when the rain started we begun the regeneration process. Heavy mulching and planting winter plants such as cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, dill, artichoke and onions were performed. Sowing rye seeds and legumes as green cover completed the process of helping natural regeneration of the soil. When it was finished I could feel more free as I was thinking that this was the first step to natural farming and re-connection with the true nature of all things. Because when you realize that the soil in your hand is not just a combination of water, minerals, organic matter and microorganisms but life itself, the essence of meaning, it is then you become whole not as a human but as part of everything and nothing.
Our everyday life was as simple as taking care of ourselves but not in the egoistic and self-centered way we are taught to do. We were a community of people looking out for each other, cooking for everyone, working and learning together and supporting everyone when needed. The strongest feeling was that of the solidarity and the well being of the community. Everything was happening because of our determination and interest in building the future we think is necessary for a fair life in which the earth and the people are protected.
This core of people from different backgrounds interacting in an environment of pure cooperation was the result of similar goals and understanding of life. Consequently, the relationships build from our everyday communication and community life imagining the perfect future were like family relationships. The learning process was also quite different. Non formal education was possible because of the interests, diversity of people and their knowledge which allowed us to exchange information about almost everything and realise that you don’t need professors, universities and experts to learn things that are most useful for a life in harmony with the nature around us.
That is the most beautiful part of the story and in the same time the hardest one. When the time came to say goodbye after so many wonderful experiences like sleeping under the stars, playing music, singing, cooking together, sharing stories, laughing and just living the way we did we couldn’t believe that it was over.
I am so happy that I met all these people and so grateful for the time being together. I hope to keep meeting people like them that inspire me to keep fighting for the future I believe in. I will certainly continue searching for them and explore the path of permaculture wherever it takes me.
Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.
Lou, founder of Boodaville has a rant about Brexit then writes about real issues like effective microorganisms, Jadam, windowsill gardening and urban permaculture.
I was wondering what to write today, and had BBC 6Music on while I took some photos of our little gardens here in the flat in Barcelona.
And now I have to start with a rant after hearing the pro-Brexit narrative “Britain is way ahead of Europe with vaccines” so some of you might get to go to Cyprus on 17th May. I am so sick of the bias news everywhere.. we know Brexit isn’t that great, we know the EU messed up sourcing vaccines, stop this constant media influence to try and make things fit the story the government want you to believe in.
The reality in Spain, for which I am truly grateful, is that we have been living a fairly normal life. We’re restricted to our own districts except for work; but with schools, most shops, circuses, museums open since June (except for a few weeks in November where they closed everything except schools). It is true that we may not be allowed to travel for Easter, and like everyone, we desperately miss easy to access concerts (here you can go with limited capacity and advance booking) and festivals, and mountains.
But the UK have totally messed up and it is desperately difficult for people to be locked down so severely for so long. The craziest thing to have happened since the war probably, and massively worthy of sensible analysis and news reports.
Anyway that’s all politics. People are amazing, resilient and resourceful, we will find our way and keep looking after each other.
I’ll end on a joke: On the way home from our weekend of planting and grafting at Boodaville I commented that one great thing about the restrictions is that there hasn’t been any traffic at all for 6 months, and Fraser said “There you are then, more positives from Coronavirus than there are from Brexit”
Now I’ve spent nearly 300 words on COVID and Brexit, I should, by my own guidelines, spend 600 talking about Ecosocial Design and addressing issues related to climate breakdown and ecological collapse which, although more long-term, are undisputedly more important.
Jadam
I am finally getting very very close to the end of the Regenerative Agriculture course from Planeses. The official end date was 6th January!!
While I have never been that excited about compost (I love the ideas from the Wheaton/ Klassen-Koop book that say “bury food” which is what we do at Boodaville!!), I am excited about what feeding your food forest can do. Natural fertilizers and effective microorganisms are an amazing input to boost the ecosystems you are regenerating. You do need a lot of barrels, and we still haven’t found out where to get “molasses” or “suero de leche” near Boodaville, but I think for the future of productive agriculture in the Vall Rovira, and based on the experience form Marc at Planeses, this could be a great project for 2021. In this short video I make some fairly unfounded conclusions about our observations in the food forest!
The system I was learning about is Jadam, I love the idea that you should mix into the fertilizer organic matter from the same plant that you are trying to grow. It makes sense thinking about natural systems! Preparing mixes of effective micro-organisms will be an amazing practical project for Sanilles on our “Regenerative Cultures” training in June!! A deadline to get the materials together, a budget, and a chance to actually learn this — by DOING!
Gardening in barcelona
I have finally made a pigeon proof garden with herbs and lettuces. The second windowsill is cherry tomatoes and strawberries, plus baby pigeons – can you see them in the picture? And we have rebranded the “shitty patio” and are now calling it the “shady garden”. Here I plant anything that will, or might, grow without any direct sunlight. (Basically anything that grows in the UK jaja) but very little food. The straw bale mushroom farm project didn’t get realised… this year.
The top flat on the new building next door has a HUGE terrace. I was thinking about lemons, and thought maybe we could offer the neighbours a lemon tree for the terrace in return for sharing the harvest.
This motivation to produce anything we can right here, comes very much from watching Kiss the Ground, and wanting to take any steps possible towards a diet that REGENERATES, imagine if we can improve ecosystems by eating!!
Has anyone got a lemon tree that needs a new home?
this weeks crazy ideas and new stuff
The best part about this feature is that I look back at previous posts and build and reflect on them. I changed my weekly organisation so Mondays is house and personal (mobile off!); Tuesdays is project management and accounting (Now until 8:30 pm thanks to our new babysitter and my Tuesday re-location to a coworking space!!!!); Wednesdays is Boodaville site and Rovira Regenerativa; Thursdays is Website and Poble Sec projects; Fridays I write and learn, and work on education projects. Perfect. Not too much is it?
Moving on from last week: We have potential volunteers (but you can still apply until tomorrow!), we haven’t moved forward with social media strategy, although have a new collaborator who wants to make documentary style videos for us! He may crush my budding youtuber career. (How sad for everyone)
I got all excited about offering a workshop on water at my kid’s school, Abel continues to be very excited by Biochar and we have a free workshop in Poble Sec on 21st March. I’m developing the office in Poble Sec idea, we could go all in and find premises that would be accommodation for 2 Barcelona based CES volunteers and a classroom and an office! Dream BIG!!
Then I realised that the process of identifying the needs for Boodaville, and Rovira Regenerativa gives very clear roles that need to be filled, so these dream volunteers would have plenty of work in return for getting their BCN living expenses paid. Let’s bring this down to concrete requests – do you know any premises for reasonable rent in Poble Sec? Do you know any hostal owners that are looking to diversify income streams? Also, we need an accountant (again).
Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.
Last weekend we worked on the abandoned terrace project, digging a swale, planting trees and grafting pistachio branches onto "pistachia lentiscus".
I love the work we did last weekend.. implementing permaculture design with wonderful knowledgeable people and finishing all the tasks we planned.
Olive branches
The first job was sawing off the broken branches of the olive trees – many trees were damaged by a 60cm snowfall back in January. These branches were then used to make a fence along the far edge of the terrace we are working on. A barrier to keep the wild boar in the forest and not snuffling around our newly planted trees.
swale
We dug a swale along the lower half of the terrace which will fill with water run-off from the road. In the past we’ve had problems with these swales getting immediately full of mud and silt coming down with the water, so we dug a silt basin at the entrance to the swale. This silt basin will need to be emptied (dug out) fairly often – after almost every storm! But it means that water will get all the way to the end of the swale, and hopefully the swale itself won’t need to be dug out for a while.
The design for the whole terrace is two long swales reaching all the way across this terrace, with about 25-30 fruit trees in total.
This weekend we dug the first 5 metres of the swale and planted four fruit trees – 2 apple and 2 apricot.
fig trees
We will take “suckers” from the fig trees and plant them on this terrace as another useful, and under appreciated fruit tree that grows abundantly in this area. We were going to dig them up and stick them in the ground, but on the advice of Nat from Flores de Vida, we have left them in water, with some of the bark stripped away, to grow some roots for a while. Some of the suckers we took were cut, and some were dug out with a small amount of root still attached. We will leave them, making sure they don’t get dry, for a month or so, then replant them near the apple and apricot trees.
Grafting
Nick from Cova Fullola found 3 male and 3 female branches from Pistachio trees and we have taken around 20 female buds and 20 male buds and tied them to shady spots on branches of “pistachia lentiscus” trees that grow naturally and abundantly here.
On the larger tree we pruned around the branches we grafted, but left most of the tree intact to provide shade. On the smaller tree, which had shade from a nearby olive, we took almost all the branches except the two that we were grafting. In each tree one branch is grafted with male buds, and one with female buds.
Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.
